NATO ‘Welcomes’ Turkish Invasion of Syria

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg met with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu today, and issued a statement “welcoming” Turkey’s recent invasion of Syria, saying that Turkey is a “strong and highly valued” member of NATO and it was important that they are increasing anti-ISIS efforts.

Stoltenberg conceded that Syria was “a very complex and very difficult situation,” but insisted that the alliance did not have the option of remaining out of the Syrian Civil War, saying that the alliance must fight against ISIS inside Syria.

Turkey’s invasion has seen them fight ISIS, at least some of the time, but the invasion has also set its sights on the US-backed Kurdish YPG. Several NATO nations, particularly France have previously expressed disquiet about Turkey’s invasion, despite Stoltenberg’s apparently unreserved endorsement.

The US, for its part, has sought to try to prevent fighting between the Turkish forces and the YPG from breaking out, and so far there have only been limited exchanges, though Turkish officials have accused the US of lying about the YPG withdrawing from Manbij, and continue to move further into Syria.

3 thoughts on “NATO ‘Welcomes’ Turkish Invasion of Syria”

Turkey’s intervention is aimed at the Kurds, but not to “target them” in some vague way, much less to destroy them. It is specifically to separate two places that Kurds control, to prevent formation of a unified Kurdistan along the Turkish border.

It also has the effect of keeping open a Turkish border with non-Kurdish insurgents, to keep open a supply line from Turkey not controlled by Kurds. Whoever one thinks they are supplying, keeping that supply going is part of this.

I doubt Turkey Is going in to fight ISIS . I more suspect it is to try to weaken the Kurds . The 30 million Kurds have no right to live in any country they can call their own . And it is Turkeys intentions it stays that way . I don’t trust one word coming out of NATOs mouth . After they thought 2 million Albanians should have their own free country in Serbia’s Kosovo because of possible Serbian oppression , So NATO Bombed Yugoslavia . Now NATO sides with Turkey a NATO member to help hold the 30 million Kurds in a stateless position .. And unlike Kosovo where there maybe could have been oppression in the future . The Turks have been murdering and oppressing the Kurds for a long time all along . Russia and China and maybe India don’t see NATO any different than the old national socialist that actually caused the last world war . If you trust NATO you maybe should have sided with the National socialists . They seem to be pretty much the same countries now with the exception of the USA They also have about surrounded Russia again and seem to be involved in trouble where ever they go .